Rough out of box experience with Tone board

Audio
13

One of the 4 cables I tried works fine in the hub. Clearly the hub has enough power since once cable works as well as every other device I’ve ever plugged in to it, many simultaneously.

Here’s the tests I’ve preformed to date, I can clarify as needed.

Test 1
Setup: Khadas USB-C cable to 4 port USB 2.0 hub attached to my desktop computer with nothing else plugged in to the hub.
Result: Fail. Only white LED turns on, doesn’t enumerate on USB bus.
Repeat: Un-plug and re-plug, no power.
Conclusion: Bad USB-C cable from Khadas.

Test 2
Setup: Khadas USB-C cable directly to USB 3.0 port on my laptop.
Result: Fail. Only white LED turns on, doesn’t enumerate on USB bus.
Repeat: Un-plug and re-plug, no power.
Conclusion: Bad USB-C cable from Khadas.

Test 3
Setup: Red USB Type-A to USB-C 2.0 cable, 2m I use often with my Pixel 3 to 4 port USB 2.0 hub with nothing else attached to hub.
Result: Fail. Device works for 30 seconds to a few minutes then stops working. Still appears on USB bus and pulseaudio thinks it’s working in mode s32le 2ch 48000Hz.
Repeat: Un-plug and re-plug USB cable and the above result repeats.
Conclusion: Poor USB signal quality on cable or Tone board.

Test 4
Setup: Grey USB-C to USB-C 2.0 cable, 1m to my laptop’s Thunderbolt/USB 3 port. Confirmed this cable and port as working with Google Pixel 3.
Result: Fail. Tone board doesn’t illuminate white LED.
Repeat: Unplug and rotate USB-C cable, no change.
Conclusion: Poor USB signal quality on cable or Tone board.

Test 5
Setup: Grey USB-C to USB-C 2.0 cable, 1m to Google Pixel 3. Phone works fine with USB-C DAC + Headphone Amp (as does the desktop and laptop)
Result: Fail. Tone board doesn’t illuminate white LED.
Repeat: Unplug and rotate USB-C cable, no change.
Conclusion: Bad power, or poor USB signal quality on cable or Tone board.

Test 6
Setup: Red USB Type-A to USB-C 2.0 cable, 2m attached to laptop.
Result: Fail. Device works for 5-15 minutes then stops working. Still appears on USB bus and pulseaudio thinks it’s working in mode s32le 2ch 48000Hz.
Repeat: Un-plug and re-plug USB cable and the above result repeats.
Conclusion: Poor USB signal quality on cable or Tone board.

Test 7
Setup: Cheap, low quality black USB Type-A to USB-C 2.0 cable from who knows where (dug out of my closet) plugged in to same USB 2.0 hub on my desktop with no other devices attached. Cable measures 1m.
Result: Success. This appears to have worked and stayed connected over night.

To repeat, my frustration, it shouldn’t take 4 USB cables and 3 host devices (desktop, laptop and phone) to make a piece of quality gear work.

Something is wrong here and while Test 7 worked, I suspect it could fail at any moment. I thought test 6 had worked and wanted to blame the USB hub like everyone else here, but then Test 6 failed. Later test 7 works with the lowest quality cable and hub better then everything.

It’s worth noting these USB-C cables, hubs and host computers work fine with every other device I can find on my desk: Yubikey, USB Mass storage device, other USB-C DACs, Raspberry Pis and more.

1 Like
14

everything is correct, all these devices are equipped with their own separate power supply.

15

i think the tb and its original cable are designed to work optimally without a hub and on an usb2 type A port,
ask for a cable replacement from your vendor if khadas cable is defective, and return the tb if you insist on using that hub

16

Hello, Which version of the TB do you have?

17

The Generic version dated 0220. They are identical as I understand it, only difference is whether or not the pin headers are installed.

18

Yes.
I asked because if the GPIO was mounted, it would be easier to check USB function, to rule out any possible USB-C connector(port) issues.

Evidently, this issue has been experienced by others. Sometimes a cable swap resolved it, other times a reversion to older TB firmware resolved it, and sometimes a port or supporting circuitry could be to blame.

Are your PC and laptop both Windows machines? If so, are you using the Window’s supplied driver?

.

1 Like
19

@2bluesc thanks for testing, I seriously don’t understand how after all these randomized tests that not even one yields success, definitely something is going wrong but I am still working on the reason why it didn’t work, will report back to you once i get the reason

20

Update, last night this setup failed. The board was in the same state as the others. White LED is illuminated, Pulseaudio thinks it’s connected and running at s32le 2ch 48000Hz, and it appears on the USB bus just fine. Verified other system sound settings with no luck.

Un-plug and re-plug cable and it starts working again.

Current result: 4 cables, 3 computers (laptop, desktop, phone), 7 USB ports this device won’t work for more then 24 hours.

21

Did you attempt firmware reversion?

22

Yup, it started with v1.04 as reported over USB and then I flashed it again with v1.04 using the DFU tool. That was prior to the first post.

23

Please try 1.02, available here.

1 Like
24

I have five of the generic tone cards, and have been happy with all of them. The USB cable for three of them work well; for one, it is intermittent; for one it is a failure. The bad cable is a bad cable, tested with the tone cars and other devices. This is not driver or rev or device related - it is the cable that is the problem on two of the five.

1 Like
25

I have searched the whole post, I can’t see a single mention of the OS you are running, RDFTKV asked you about this.

What flavour of OS are you running? FreeBSD, OpenBSD, macOS?
Have you tested the TB on a Windows 10 machine?

26

He is probably using a Linux computer,

I quoted that because he is using pulseaudio which is one of the most used Linux userspace sound system

27

Tone board worked out of the box for me on multiple different sbc and using two different khadas usbA-usbC cables. Couldn’t be happier with this product and have had zero issues in 6months.

Shoog

1 Like
28

Update for those interested blaming cables, hubs, firmware, USB specifications, power supplies and more:

I ordered a replacement Tone Board and it works without issue. All the cables work with all the devices (except cell phone, but different issue). Khadas cable works, other cables work, no issues with hub or directly connected. PCB and firmware have same revision.

2 Likes
29

Excited this is no longer acting sketchy so that I can progress to the VIM3L integration.

If only CEC worked correctly on 5.7 kernel… Hmmmmmm.

1 Like
30

great, but never saw that coming :face_with_raised_eyebrow:, I never imagined it being faulty due to the board itself, Infact it was the last of my assumptions, but anyway happy to know it works now.

31

When troubleshooting, all possible causes must be considered. Most troubleshooting is a process of elimination. Starting with the most likely or inexpensive suspects, and moving down the list.
I think we covered it all here. :grin:

3 Likes
32

yep, definitely everything in the list, that probably existed :rofl:

1 Like